Seo Jung-hoo.
Heir to Shinseong Group—the third-largest conglomerate in Korea.
CEO of Shinseong Heavy Industries, its most powerful subsidiary.
And my husband, four years my senior.

We were married, but there was no love. It was nothing more than a typical arranged marriage—common among the wealthy, devoid of affection.

When I died, I had believed he would be briefly startled, then quickly relieved. But to think he would come all the way to this tiny island to find me…

‘Then that black Jaguar I saw at the alley entrance…’

When he worked, he rode in a Rolls-Royce or limousine. In private, he drove a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, and when he wanted to feel the thrill of speed, he took out his replica bike.

A Jaguar was far too modest for him, so I never imagined it could be his.

How foolish. How careless of me. I should have been more wary of that unfamiliar car.

If I had turned away from that Jaguar and left the island right then, we wouldn’t be facing each other like this now.

“What are you standing there for? It’s been a while since we met.”

His cynical voice cut through the air, slicing straight into her eardrums.

“Take your clothes off and come over here, nice and slow. I’ll spoil you all you want.”

As always, that voice dripped with arrogance. He hadn’t changed at all.

The same sharp, predatory gaze that looked down on people as though crushing them underfoot.
The same aura—cold and unyielding as if ice ran through his veins instead of blood.
The same towering height that made her shoulders shrink beneath his presence.
The same low, velvety voice that carried a dark, dangerous sensuality.

She had to run. She had to escape him—this man who remained as merciless and brutal as ever,
as though time itself had frozen around him.

Ye-jin spun on her heel, ready to sprint with every ounce of strength she had—but a hand seized the back of her neck with crushing force.

The violent pull tore her T-shirt, and the bag slung over her shoulder fell to the floor with a dull thud.

From the half-opened bag, a corner of her maternity record booklet slipped out.

“…!”

Ye-jin lunged for it at once. If Seo Jung-hoo saw that, it was all over.

But his hand was faster.

He picked it up and flipped it open. His face instantly hardened.

On the page, the small, wriggling shape of a fetus showed clearly on the ultrasound image—and the way his eyes fixed on it, sharp and chilling, was terrifying.

A moment later, as though he couldn’t stand the sight any longer, he flung the maternity booklet violently to the floor.

Without warning, he yanked up Ye-jin’s T-shirt. Her slender body was only slightly rounded at the belly.

“Is the thing in your womb mine?”

She was speechless.

‘That thing. Offspring.’

To speak of a child like that—how could anyone be so cruel?

She had known from the start that he never wanted a child, but did he have to be this heartless?

“Of course not. It’s another man’s child.”

Her tone was cold, detached. She had no intention of telling him the truth.

His expression darkened, the lines of his face twisting with fury.

“Do you actually expect me to believe that?”

“And you think it makes sense that it’s yours?”

For an instant, his eyes flickered.

“Mr. Seo Jung-hoo, you know better than anyone that this child isn’t yours.”

The lie rolled off her tongue, calm and steady. He had no choice but to believe it—because he… he—

“Right. It couldn’t be mine.”

As expected, he accepted the lie. His sigh was long and heavy, his face a complex mix of emotions. A fleeting shadow crossed his handsome features. His eyes, honed as sharply as a soldier’s blade, suddenly seemed barren—like a desert wind sweeping across them.

How strange.

She had thought he would laugh—relieved, even triumphant—upon hearing the child wasn’t his. But this reaction… this quiet desolation… she hadn’t expected that at all.

“Then it’s his brat, isn’t it?”

Suddenly, he held his phone up to her face.

On the screen, Jihoon was tied to a chair, his face a bloody mess as though he had been tortured.

Ye-jin gasped, horror seizing her. Her entire body trembled like a leaf in the wind.

“Ah, don’t worry, I won’t k*ll him. I just plan to cripple him from the waist down… maybe take out an eye or two.”

A cruel smile curved his lips as he spoke, the words dripping with venom.

Those dark eyes gleamed with a lethal sharpness—like the edge of a blade, ready to cut through anything in its path.

“Jihoon is just an old high school friend! The only thing he’s guilty of is helping me! Let him go, please!”

Ye-jin struck his chest with her fists, her voice trembling in fury. She couldn’t stand the thought of Jihoon suffering because of her.

“Then who’s the father of that kid?”

“I—I don’t know. I was drunk that night…”

Her voice grew smaller and smaller, and the muscles between his brows tightened.

“It was just a mistake. I was lonely, that’s all…”

“Lonely? What the hell was so lonely? I was screwing you every d*mn day, so what were you missing?”

“You… don’t know anything.”

Her eyes burned hot as clear tears streamed down her cheeks. He never understood—never even tried to. And that hurt more than anything.

‘You’ll never know, will you? What I wanted, what I needed… You’ll go your whole life without ever knowing.’

“Don’t cry. You just got yourself into some stupid mess, that’s all. You didn’t have to run away over something so trivial.”

‘Something so trivial?’
‘I’m pregnant—and that’s trivial?’

The tears poured even harder, spilling freely. There was a life growing inside her. A precious, tiny heartbeat.

‘Seo Jung-hoo, it’s your child. Yours.’
‘And you call that ‘nothing’?’

“Fine. All right. I get it. Everything’s my fault. I won’t let you be lonely again.”

He stepped closer, cupping her tear-soaked face in both hands. His fingers brushed delicately across her cheeks, wiping away the tears.

Even so, unease flooded through her. There was poison hidden beneath that tenderness—she could feel it.

“I won’t leave your side. Not for a single moment, Yoo Ye-jin.”

His whisper was soft, almost tender, as his hand slowly traced the curve of her body. The touch was gentle—yet it made her skin crawl.

“I’ll take you to work with me, walk you around often, buy you pretty clothes, play beautiful music, feed you only the best things.”

His large hand caressed her shoulder, slid down her slender arm, and clasped her small hand tightly.

Then, he lifted it and pressed his lips lightly to the back of her hand.

“I’ll mate with you several times a day. To make sure you don’t run away, I’ll put a pretty collar around your neck. With a name tag, of course.”

The words chilled her to the bone. Ye-jin snatched her hand away at once. As she had feared—he was poison. A deadly toxin made to degrade and destroy her.

“Go back. Yoo Ye-jin doesn’t exist anymore. And besides—you hate women like me, don’t you?”

“Hate you? What kind of husband hates his own wife? Don’t say ridiculous things.”

His thick arm coiled around her slender waist, and a shadowed smile curved across his lips.

He’d always been a madman.

Smiling now in this situation was insane, and the brazenness of claiming there is no husband who hates his wife was crazier still. Who was it that treated me like a plaything throughout our marriage? Who mocked me and violated me at the slightest provocation—have you already forgotten?

Granted, sometimes he had shown a gentler side. But no matter how occasionally kind he’d been, he was not the sort of man who would graciously accept the child in my womb.

“You’re the one saying ridiculous things, Seo Jung-hoo. Let’s end this.”

Ye-jin twisted her body and tried to shove him away. The more she struggled, the tighter he pulled her into his arms.

“Who are you to decide?”

“……”

“Do you know how desperately I searched for you?”

“……”

“I’ll never let you go again.”

“……”

“I’ll fasten that collar so tight you won’t even dream of running.”

His low voice stabbed her like poison and a crushing despair washed over her. How had she escaped him before? What resolve had she shown when she fled? She had thrown everything away to escape—only to find herself shackled once more. The cruel shackle named Seo Jung-hoo.

“You’re insane! You’ve lost your mind! Can’t you understand? I— I secretly drank and slept with another man! I got pregnant because of that! There’s another man’s child in my belly!”

She pretended anger to break that shackle, forcing out the harshest words she could. She cried the lie like a last-ditch scream.

But he laughed—calmly, as if he had all the time in the world, almost innocent.

“And what about it?’

“……”

“I’ll take care of the child in your belly.”